Transportation of products such as bananas originally was carried out by simply hanging the stems on a ships hold. This method led to tremendous losses as the product would most likely rot before reaching market. As a result, eating a banana during these times was considered a luxury. The advent of refrigerated holds on ships, refrigerated containers, fiberboard boxes and pallets, greatly reduced these losses and greatly expanded market potentials. No longer does the product require short delivery timetables, but they can be prolonged to as much as two to three weeks, thereby making it possible to reach markets as distant from the tropics as Europe.
Refrigeration plays the dominant role in the transportation of perishable goods. As in the case of bananas, for example, when the fruit is harvested it is immediately prepared for shipment by cutting into hands (that is the small clusters which ultimately reach your supermarket). These hands are then washed, disinfected, and placed into fiberboard boxes. These boxes are either directly loaded into refrigerated containers which are then placed on container vessels or on pallets which are hoisted into refrigerated ship bulks. The trend is leaning towards placing boxes on pallets even in refrigerated containers. After a succesful ocean voyage the bulk fruit is usually temporarily held at a refrigerated port warehouse facilty until delivery to wholesalers is made. The containerized units are also held at the port yards until delivery to wholesalers. Wholesaler facilities include specially built ripening rooms where the fruit is prepared for retail delivery. This is the main reason bananas are always waiting for us to eat and at such a reasonable price.
Refrigeration is the control of a given enviroment to maintain a product at preset conditions. These conditions are usually temperature and humidity. To achieve these conditions the most important factor is heat exchange, as is the case when cool air is circulated through a product. In order for cool air to circulate properly it must follow a path of least resistance, just like water passes in a pipe so should air be directed through a duct. Thus it is possible to maximize the efficiency of a refrigeration system.
The problem in todays' practice of refrigerating fresh fruits, such as bananas and other products, lies not in the refrigeration equipment, which generally is much more than adequate to handle any load, but in the distribution of air. The great majority of product losses in these industries is due to a major flaw in the packaging of these products for transportation and delivery. Packaging is not designed with air flow as a predominant consideration.
The onset of fiberboard boxes and wooden pallets to the fresh fruit industries was a great improvement (in its time), in that it facilitated the packaging, storage and distribution of these products. These boxes and pallets, in effect, are very inexpensive and do provide adequate protection to make them practical for these applications. Fiberboard boxes and pallets do not provide adequate ventilation for refrigeration purposes. The combination of boxes that are not designed to facilitate the flow of air and compounding the problem with pallets which further block the flow, creates astronomical losses. These losses are as follows:
product losses as much as 5-10% PA1 energy consumption wasted 10-30%
The low cost of fiberboard boxes (which are discarded after one trip), the low cost of wooden pallets and the relative affordability of energy has for too long now blanketed the need of incorporating a new packaging design. Today and tomorrow things require change! No longer can we continue to exhaust the forests to make fiberboard boxes and wooden pallets, nor to maintain expensive energy consuming equipment at inefficient levels.
Thus the object of this invention is to provide a system that will replace the fiberboard box and pallet as we know them today, with a system that will not only improve the survivability of the product but at the same time be capable of reducing energy costs and have a positive enviromental impact.